Find a Book Festival
Scotland is a nation of readers and boasts more than 50 book and literary festivals held throughout the year from Stornoway to the Scottish Borders and from Skye to Aberdeen.
We aim to collate a full, up-to-date list of all the book festivals so please let us know if there are any events that should be included or details to be updated via email on admin@literaturealliancescotland.co.uk or on Twitter @LitScotland.
Happy reading around the nation!
Book Festivals in Scotland
| MONTH | DATE | EVENT | WEBSITE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JANUARY | 19 & 25-27 Jan 2019 | Further From Festival Linlithgow | @Furtherfrom | |
| 22-27 Jan 2019 | Burns&Beyond | @burnsandbeyond | burnsandbeyond.com | |
| FEBRUARY | 14-17 Feb 2019 | Winter Words Festival Pitlochry | @PITLOCHRYft | pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com |
| 22-24 Feb 2019 | Granite Noir Aberdeen | @GraniteNoirFest #GraniteNoirFest | aberdeenperformingarts.com/granitenoir | |
| 24 Feb 2018 | Crime at the Castle Glamis Castle | Programme | ||
| MARCH | 3-4 Mar 2018 | Wee Write! | @AyeWrite | ayewrite.com/weewrite |
| 6-10 Mar 2019 | StAnza Poetry Festival Scotland's International Poetry Festival, St Andrews | @StAnzaPoetry #StAnza18 | stanza poetry.org | |
| 15-25 Mar 2018 | Aye Write! Glasgow's Book Festival | @AyeWrite | ayewrite.com | |
| 23-25 Mar 2018 | Big DoG Children's Book Festival Wigtown | @BigDog_Fest | Big DoG Festival PDF | |
| APRIL | 5-7 Apr 2019 | John O'Groat's Book Festival | Facebook page | |
| 14-15 Apr 2018 | Glasgow Zine Fest | @GlasgowZineFest | glasgowzinefest.com | |
| 26 Apr - 6 May 2018 | TradFest Annual showcase of TRACS tradition arts and culture Scotland, Edinburgh | @TradFestEd | tracscotland.org | |
| 27 & 28 April 2019 | Colonsay Book Festival | @ColonsayBookFes #CBF18 | colonsaybookfestival.org.uk | |
| MAY | 2-5 May 2019 | BIG LIT: The Stewartry Book Festival Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries & Galloway | biglit.org | |
| 4-6 May 2018 | Boswell Book Festival Dumfries House, Ayrshire | @bozzyfest | boswellbookfestival.co.uk | |
| 8-19 May 2018 | Booked! West Dunbartonshire Festival of Words | @wdclibraries | Tickets | |
| 11-13 May 2018 | Ullapool Book Festival Ross-shire, Scottish Highlands | @UllapoolBookFes | ullapoolbookfestival.co.uk | |
| 11-27 May 2018 | Southside Fringe Festival Glasgow's Southside | @KeepItSouth | southsidefringe.com | |
| 12-19 May 2018 | Off the Page Stirling | @CultureStirling | culturestirling.org/off-the-page/ | |
| 17-19 May | Booked! ReimagiNation: Glenrothes | @edbookfest | booked.edbookfest.co.uk | |
| 18-20 May 2018 | Coastword Dunbar | @CoastWordFest | coastward.co.uk |
|
| 19 & 20 May 2019 | Connect with Nature at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | @BotanicsStories | stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/28605 | |
| tbc | May Festival University of Aberdeen | abdn.ac.uk/mayfestival | ||
| JUNE | 2019 7-9 | Cymera Book Festival | @CymeraF | cymerafestival.co.uk |
| 14-17 June 2018 | Baillie Gifford Borders Book Festival Melrose | @BordersBookFest #bordersbookfest18 | bordersbookfestival.org | |
| 27 Jun - 1 Jul 2018 | East Neuk Festival | @EastNeukFest #ENF2018 | eastneukfestival.com | |
| 30 June 2018 | Glasgow Comic Con Scotland's Comic Book Festival | @glasgowcomiccon | glasgowcomiccon.com | |
| JULY | tbc | Scot Lit Fest Scotland's virtual book festival presented by Saltire Society | @scotlitfest #scotlitfest | scotlitfest.scot |
| AUGUST | 3-5 Aug 2018 | Bute Noir Crime Writing Festival Isle of Bute | @ButeNoir #butenoir | butenoir.co.uk |
| 3-12 Aug 2018 | Fringe by the Sea North Berwick | @fringebythesea2 | fringebythesea.com | |
| 11-27 Aug 2018 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | @edbookfest #edbookfest | edbookfest.co.uk | |
| 2019 - 24 Aug - 1 Sept | Islay Book Festival | @islaybookfest | islaybookfestival.co.uk | |
| 25 & 26 Aug 2018 | Beyond Borders International Festival of Literature and Thought | @BeyondBorders__ | beyondbordersscotland.com | |
| 31 Aug - 9 Sept 2018 | McLellan Art Festival, Arran Celebrating late great Scottish dramatist and short story writer Robert McLellan | arrantheatreandarts.co.uk/mclellan-festival | ||
| SEPTEMBER | 6-8 Sept 2018 | Skye Book Festival | @SkyeBookFest | skyebookfestival.co.uk |
| 10-15 Sept 2018 | Spirit of Moray Book Festival Elgin | @librariesmoray #SpiritofMoray | ||
| 11-16 Sept 2018 | Nairn Book & Arts Festival Inverness | @Nairn_Festival | nairnfestival.co.uk | |
| 21-23 Sept 2018 | Bloody Scotland Scotland's international crime writing festival, Stirling | @BloodyScotland #bloodyscotland | bloodyscotland.com | |
| 21-30 Sep 2018 | Wigtown Book Festival Scotland's national book town's literary festival | @WigtownBookFest #wigtown | wigtownbookfestival.com | |
| 22-29 Sept 2018 | Bookends Benderloch, Oban | |||
| 28-29 Sep 2018 | Three Lochs Book & Arts Festival Strontian | threelochs.co.uk | ||
| 28-30 Sept 2018 | Tidelines Irvine, North Ayrshire | @TidelinesFest | tidelinesbookfest.com | |
| tbc | Byres Road Book Festival Glasgow's West End | @byresrdbookfest | byresroadbookfestival.com | |
| OCTOBER | tbc | Imprint Book Festival East Ayrshire | ||
| 4-7 Oct 2018 | Ness Book Fest Inverness | @NessBookFest1 | nessbookfest.wordpress.com | |
| 5-7 Oct 2018 | Bookmark Blairgowrie, Rattray & The Glens, Perth & Kinross | @bookmarkblair | bookmarkblair.com | |
| 19-21 Oct 2018 | Berwick Literary Festival | @BerwickLitFest | berwickliteraryfestival.com | |
| 19-31 Oct 2018 | Scottish International Storytelling Festival Edinburgh | @ScotStoryCentre | scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk | |
| 25-28 Oct 2018 | Orkney Storytelling Festival | @OrkneyStoF | orkneystorytellingfestival.co.uk | |
| tbc | Faclan Hebridean Book Festival An Lanntair, Stornoway | @anlanntair | lanntair.com | |
| tbc | Tarbert Book Festival Argyll | @TarbertBookFest | tarbertbookfestival.org | |
| NOVEMBER | tbc | Wordplay Shetland Arts' annual book festival | @ShetlandArts | www.shetlandarts.org |
| 9-11 Nov 2018 | A Write Highland Hoolie! Mallaig's Book Festival | @WriteHoolie | a-write-highland-hoolie.com | |
| 13 Nov 2018 | Robert Louis Stevenson Day Annual week of events in Edinburgh and online in run up to RLS' birthday on 13 Nov | #RLSDay | ||
| 19-25 Nov 2018 | Book Week Scotland | @BookWeekScot | bookweekscotland.com | |
| 19-25 Nov 2018 | Uist Book Festival | uistbookfestival.org | ||
| 24-25 nov 2018 | Cove and Kilcreggan Book Festival Argyll & Bute | @coveburghhall | coveburghhall.org.uk | |
| 24 Nov 2018 (& 1-2 Dec below) | Dreams for the Future Dumfries | @PPMBT | peterpanmoatbrae.org | |
| 30 Nov 2018-25 Jan 2019 | Scotland's Winter Festivals | @Scotland | scotland.org/events/winter-festivals | |
| DECEMBER | 1-2 Dec 2018 | Dreams for the Future Dumfries | @PPMBT | peterpanmoatbrae.org |